When Silence Speaks: Public Service Innovation, Village Authority, and the Negotiation of Traditional Justice in Rural Indonesia’s Youth Protection System

Erna Setijaningrum (), Antun Mardiyanta, Bintoro Wardiyanto and Suhaimi Abd Samad
Additional contact information
Erna Setijaningrum: Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya 60115, Indonesia
Antun Mardiyanta: Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya 60115, Indonesia
Bintoro Wardiyanto: Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya 60115, Indonesia
Suhaimi Abd Samad: Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Seremban, Shah Alam 40450, Malaysia

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Rural Indonesian villages are defined by unique institutional dynamics in public service innovation, one of which manifests in juvenile justice administration where traditional governance meets modern legal structures. These institutional arrangements position villages as sites of public service innovation at the intersection of competing normative orders, especially regarding youth protection standards and cultural practice maintenance. We address patterns of public service innovation and institutional adaptation in rural juvenile justice systems through the systematic analysis of practices across five villages in East Java. Through consolidating stakeholder interviews and justice proceeding observations, our analysis shows how communities innovate in public service delivery by negotiating between formal requirements and informal mechanisms while integrating distinctive legal traditions and maintaining institutional legitimacy across multiple domains. The examination identifies two central patterns in public service development. First, processes of normative integration emerge through systematic institutional synthesis where communities innovate service delivery approaches while preserving cultural coherence. Second, these innovation processes correspond to variations in resource distribution, traditional authority configurations, and state presence across geographic and social contexts. We document how unspoken institutional practices and innovative service arrangements shape justice negotiations between community and state spheres, particularly in mediating youth protection within traditional normative frameworks of public service delivery.

Keywords: child welfare; legal pluralism; public service innovation; community-based justice; youth empowerment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/1/22/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/1/22/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:1:p:22-:d:1562021

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().